Copyright and Fair Use

Creative Commons (CC) licenses are public copyright licenses that allow you to add reasonable restrictions to others' use of your work. It is important to remember that copyright is automatically granted. Adding CC licenses will allow you tell consumers of your work exactly how you would like them to interact with your work. 

You will see CC licenses made up of the following elements (or "restrictions"):

• BY (attribution) - credit must be given to the creator
• SA (share-alike) - adaptations must be shared under the same terms
• NC (non-commercial) - only non-commercial uses of the work are permitted
• ND (non-derivative) - no derivatives or adaptations of the work are permitted

There are 6 main CC licenses, as well as CC0 which means the work is in the public domain. They are listed here from most permissive to least permissive:

It is important to note two things about licensing your work:

• Once you apply a license to your work, it cannot be revoked
• Only the copyright holder or someone with express permission from the copyright holder can apply a license